II
But I wasn't relying totally on anyone, not even Candace. Since Connick was the central figure of the opposition I caught a cab and went to see him.
It was already dark, a cold, clear night, and over the mushroom towers of the business district a quarter-moon was beginning to rise. I looked at it almost with affection; I had hated it so when I was there.
As I paid the cab, two kids in snowsuits came sidling out to inspect me. I said, "Hello. Is your Daddy home?"
One was about five, with freckles and bright blue eyes; the other was darker, brown-eyed, and he had a limp. The blue-eyed one said, "Daddy's down in the cellar. Mommy will let you in if you ring the doorbell. Just push that button."
"Oh, that's how those things work. Thanks." Connick's wife turned out to be a good-looking, skinny blonde in her thirties, and the kids must have raced around the back way and alerted the old man, because as she was taking my coat, he was already coming through the hall.
I shook his hand and said, "I can tell by the smells from your kitchen that it's dinnertime. I won't keep you. My name is Gunnarsen and—"
"And you're from Moultrie & Bigelow—here, sit down, Mr. Gunnarsen—and you want to know if I won't think it over and back the Arcturan base. No, Mr. Gunnarsen, I won't. But why don't you have a drink with me before dinner? And then why don't you have dinner?"
He was a genuine article, this Connick. I had to admit he had caught me off balance.
"Why, I don't mind if I do," I said after a moment. "I see you know why I'm here."
He was pouring drinks. "Well, not altogether, Mr. Gunnarsen. You don't really think you'll change my mind, do you?"
"I can't say that until I know why you oppose the base in the first place, Connick. That's what I want to find out."
He handed me a drink, sat down across from me, and took a thoughtful pull at his own. It was good Scotch. Then he looked to see if the kids were within earshot, and said: "The thing is this, Mr. Gunnarsen. If I could, I would kill every Arcturan alive, and if it meant I had to accept the death of a few million Earthmen to do it, that wouldn't be too high a price. I don't want the base here because I don't want anything to do with those murdering animals."
"Well, you're candid," I said, finished my drink, and added, "If you meant that invitation to dinner, I believe I will take you up on it."
I must say they were a nice family. I've worked elections before: Honnick was a good candidate because he was a good man. The way his kids behaved around him proved it, and the way he behaved around me was the clincher. I didn't scare him a bit.
Of course, that was not altogether bad, from my point of view. Connick kept the conversation off Topic A during dinner, which was all right with me, but as soon as it was over and we were alone, he said, "All right. You can make your pitch now, Mr. Gunnarsen. Although I don't know why you're here instead of with Tom Schlitz." Schlitz was the man he was running against. I said, "You don't know this business, I guess. What do we need him for? He's already committed on our side."
"And I'm already committed against you, but I guess that's what you're hoping to change. Well, what's your offer?" He was moving too fast for me. I pretended to misunderstand. Really, Mr. Connick, I wouldn't insult you by offering a bribe—"
"No, I know you wouldn't. Because you're smart enough to know I wouldn't take money. So it isn't money. What is it, then? Moultrie & Bigelow working for me instead of Schlitz in the election? That's a pretty good offer, but the price is too high. I won't pay it."
"Well," I said, "as a matter of fact, we would be willing—"
"Yes, I thought so. No deal. Anyway, do you really think I need help to get elected?"
That was a good point, I was forced to admit. I conceded, "No, not if everything else were equal. You're way ahead right now, as your surveys and ours both show. But everything else isn't equal."
"By which you mean that you're going to help old Slits-and-fits. All right, that makes it a horse race."
I held up my glass, and he refilled it. I said, "Mr. Connick, I told you once you didn't know this business. You don't. It isn't a horse race because you can't win against us."
"I can sure give it a hell of a try, though. Anyway"—he finished his own drink thoughtfully—"you brainwashers are a little bit fat, I think. Everybody knows how powerful you are, and you haven't really had to show it much lately. I wonder if the emperor's really, running around naked."
"Oh, no, Mr. Connick. Best-dressed emperor you ever saw, take my word for it."
He said, frowning a little bit, "I think I'll have to find out for myself. Anyway, frankly, I think people's minds are made up, and you can't change them."
"We don't have to," I said. "Don't you know why people vote the way they do, Connick? They don't vote their 'minds.' They vote attitudes and they vote impulses. Frankly, I'd rather work on your side than against you. Schlitz would be easy to beat. He's Jewish."
Connick said angrily, "There's none of that in Belport, man."
"Of anti-Semitism, you mean. Of course not. But if one candidate is Jewish and if it turns up that fifteen years ago he tried to square a parking ticket—and there's always something that turns up, Connick, believe me—then they'll vote against him for fixing parking tickets. That's what I mean by 'attitudes.' Your voter—oh, not all of them, but enough to swing any election—goes into the booth pulled this way and that. We don't have to change his mind. We just have to help him decide which part of it to operate on." I let him refill my glass and took a pull at it. I was aware that I was beginning to feel the effects. "Take you, Connick," I said. "Suppose you're a Democrat and you go in to cast your vote. We know how you're going to vote for President, right? You're going to vote for the Democratic candidate."
Connick said, not unbending much, "Not necessarily. But probably."
"Not necessarily, right. And why not necessarily? Because maybe you know this fellow who's running on the Democratic ticket—or maybe somebody you know has a grudge against him, couldn't get the postmaster's job he wanted, or ran against his delegates for the convention. Point is, you have something against him just because your first instinct is for him. So how do you vote? Whichever way happens to get dominance at the moment of voting. Not at any other moment. Not as a matter of principle. But right then. No, we don't have to change any minds . . . because most people don't have enough mind to change!"
He stood up and absentmindedly filled his own glass—I wasn't the only one who was beginning to feel the liquor. "I'd hate to be you," he said, half to himself.
"Oh, it's not bad."
He shook his head, then recollected himself and said, "Well, thanks for the lesson. I didn't know. But I'll tell you one thing you'll never do. You'll never get me to vote on the Arcturan side on any question."
I sneered, "There's an open mind for you! Leader of the people! Takes an objective look at every question!"
"All right, I'm not objective. They stink."
"Race prejudice, Connick?"
"Oh, don't be a fool."
"There is," I said, "an Arcturan aroma. They can't help it."
"I didn't say 'smell.' I said 'stink.' I don't want them in this town, and neither does anybody else. Not even Schlitz."
"You don't ever have to see them. They don't like Earth climate, you know. Too hot for them. Too much air. Why, Connick," I said, "I'll bet you a hundred bucks you won't set eyes on an Arcturan for at least a year, not until the base is built and staffed. And then I doubt they'll bother to—What's the matter?"
He was looking at me as though I were an idiot, and I almost began to think I was.
"Why," he said, again in that tone that was more to himself than to me, "I guess I've been overrating you. You think you're God, so I've been accepting your own valuation."
"What do you mean?"
"Inexcusably bad staff work, Mr. Gunnarsen," he said, nodding judgmatically. "It ought to make me feel good. But you know, it doesn't. It scares me. With the kind of power you throw around, you should always be right."
"Spit it out!"
"It's just that you lose your bet. Didn't you know there's an Arcturan in town right now?"